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Obama Signs Executive Order on Controlled Unclassified Information

On November 4th, President Obama signed an executive order requiring agencies to use one term only -- “Controlled Unclassified Information,” (CUI) -- to mark documents that they believe should be protected, but not designated as “classified.” The order establishes a program for managing this information that emphasizes the openness and uniformity of Government-wide practice. Prior to the order, several federal agencies used their own system of approximately 120 different markings in order to categorize and protect information. These agency-specific policies led to unclear and sometimes unnecessarily restrictive dissemination policies, and created impediments to authorized information sharing.